Prime Minister Luc Frieden opened the door to a third day of tripartite talks on Wednesday, as Nora Back rejected a partial agreement and employers pressed for a rapid conclusion.

The prime minister said on his way into Senningen Castle that another meeting had not yet been formally decided. But if talks continued as constructively as Tuesday’s first full session, he said, he intended to invite the social partners back on Thursday afternoon.

“It is good, once you are in a discussion, to continue it,” Frieden said. The remark lowered expectations that Wednesday would necessarily be the final session, without ruling out progress later in the day. The tripartite began as a response to the energy and inflation fallout from the Middle East crisis, but has widened to include housing, the social minimum wage, business taxation and job protection.

‘It is a whole’

The central question is whether the government can secure a limited agreement on energy and purchasing-power measures, or whether unions will insist that any deal also covers the wider package they brought into the talks.

Back, president of the OGBL, rejected the idea of picking out the easier points for agreement while leaving more difficult issues for later.

“No, that is not possible for us,” Back said. She said the aim was “a global agreement” in which all points were included and each side could recognise itself.

Back nevertheless signalled room for negotiation on individual demands, including the union call for a €300 increase in the social minimum wage.

“If you were not prepared to make compromises, there would be no need to come here,” she said. But she added that the outcome would have to be judged across the full package: the minimum wage, housing, social dialogue, purchasing power and energy.

Romain Wolff was less categorical, but also framed the talks as a package. Asked whether a limited agreement could be reached on Wednesday, the CGFP president said the afternoon would show how the discussions advanced. “Some things could perhaps be agreed, but it is a whole,” Wolff said.

Housing divides the table

Housing is now one of the clearest signs that the tripartite has moved beyond the government’s original crisis frame.

Frieden said the topic had been put on the agenda at the request of the unions. A tripartite could not cover every aspect of housing without lasting months, he said, but the government wanted to listen to union concerns, especially on affordable housing.

Wolff said housing had to be discussed because it was “the most important problem” in Luxembourg, though he said he could not specify which aspects would be covered.

Back said the OGBL would present its ideas again, including measures against speculation and prices, support for tenants, and more public and affordable rental housing. Some measures could be short term, she said, while others would need to be placed on a defined timetable.

Employers arrived with a different view. Michel Reckinger, president of the Union of Luxembourg Enterprises, said housing did not appear in the UEL’s submitted documents because employers did not consider it a tripartite topic. “We will see what comes,” he said, adding: “Everyone needs housing.”

Employers press for speed

Reckinger’s main message was speed. He said he would have been ready to continue talks on Tuesday evening and was also ready to continue on Wednesday evening rather than lose momentum. “I am not going to the football,” he said.

The issues were important, the moment was difficult and there was no time to lose, Reckinger added. The aim, he said, was to reach “a concrete conclusion” that would be better for the country.